Grady and his Women

I remember reading a quote that read, "Undressing her was an act of recklessness, a kind of vandalism, like releasing a zoo full of animals, or blowing up a dam." Even though it is kind of a racy quote, I was still somehow struck by it. It was said by Grady, and it kind of opened my eyes to what kind of man he is.

Grady’s relationship with women is very interesting in Wonder Boys. There is the relationship between Grady and his ex-wife, his lover, and the student half his age whose living in his home. I do think that Grady is a womanizer; he’s already been married thrice, and falls in and out of love on a regular basis.

But the way he describes getting intimate with a women kind of deters me from liking the “protagonist” in this novel. Even though I really do not consider myself a feminist, I can’t help but feel almost degraded by the way he describes undressing a women. He describes it as if he’s getting a major rush of adrenaline, and how what he’s doing is almost like a game for him. He describes it as an act of vandalism and recklessness, and relates it to unleashing zoo animals or blowing up a dam. I think that Grady has a very immature outlook when it comes to women, especially since he relates having sex with juvenile acts of recklessness.

I think that it his lack of understanding of love, trust, and fidelity that gets Grady in trouble with his female companions. He mentions that he cheated on every single one of his ex-wives, and now he even wants to cheat on his lover. I think that it is sad how everyone around Grady seems to be not too surprised about Grady’s behavior. For instance, James, Crabtree, Sara, and his ex-wife’s sister, seem to accept this kind of behavior as something not unusual. I feel that it is only his (ex) parent-in-laws that seem to have a problem with all this infidelity, for they have been married their entire lives. But it is interesting how fidelity is represented in an old couple, perhaps Chabon symbolizes fidelity as an antiquated act that has long been forgotten to all but the elderly?